Is It Time to Abandon Bannon?

A SEARCH THROUGH MY EMAIL BUSINESS ACCOUNT has turned into a drive to rid the nation of all things Trump, including one specifically from CREDO to “Tell Congress: Stop Bannon: No white supremacist on the National Security Council.”

In the petition from CREDO comes the following:

“Trump and his administration have been playing fast, loose and reckless with our security… and Bannon’s appointment to the NSC is one of the most dangerous and irresponsible decisions he has made since taking office.

It is clear that in the White House, Bannon is the one running this presidency. He is one of the masterminds behind unraveling the Affordable Care Act, the unconstitutional Muslim ban, the anti-immigrant border wall, and the sweeping abortion restrictions coming out of Congress. And now, as long as he remains on the NSC, he has the power to say who among us should be protected and who should be targeted.

Bannon believes … that America should be the center of a new movement of right-wing populism centering on white nationalism.”

President Trump, Bannon and certain cabinet appointments do admittedly make me nervous … but not because they are necessarily “right-wing populists” or questionably “white nationalists.” They concern me because they are populists and nationalists, period. These kind of presidents are dangerous without additional monikers attached. They are enemies of the people and the Constitution, because they pick and choose which parts they want to adhere to and which to ignore.

The Trump administration has already shown distain for the first amendment, going to war with the free press. Something which has made a lot of other people nervous as well. And to be fair to CREDO at least there were legitimate concerns brought up with immigration and abortion issues and it wasn’t simply calling Bannon a racist. The Muslim ban keeps out those who could be assets to the nation as well as the terrorist threat, the most ardent opponents of illegal immigration are those who can across legally. Many border patrol agents are from Mexican heritage and are dedicated to the nation’s safety, with an immigration ban we turn potential supporters into part of the problem. What CREDO forgot to mention was the real cause is for the immigration influx is from the unintended consequences of the War on Terror, of course that would also bring up how their War Criminal President Barack Obama has blood on his hands as well. If not for the military intervention, which is sure to continue, these people wouldn’t have been displaced in the first place. Unfortunately this usually is where the discussion breaks down for the supporters of duopoly candidates-which could be why CREDO didn’t mention it but I doubt that’s why-in the first place.

Besides Bannon, there are legitimate concerns with cabinet member Jeff Sessions and Vice President Mike Pence and there should be. Both are moral authoritarians and will also ignore the constitution and will of law when it violates their personal morals. This is esspecially true when it comes to marijuana enforcement, both expressing the eagerness to maintain the status quo federal standard with regards to marijuana, which is at odds with many states rights and the changing opinion from the general public.

So who is Steve Bannon anyways? Before joining Team Trump he was the executive editor at Breitbart news, which is where the claims of racism originates. Since Bannon took over for the late Andrew Breitbart, there has been an increase of racist comments by staff as well as site vistors. Bannon had done nothing to check that. Before that he worked at Goldman Sachs and in the entertainment industry, a resume similar to Trump. Also like Trump both were Democrats and strong supporters of the party causes.

The concern over Bannon for the DailyKos is the Trump adminstrations efforts of “draining the swamp.” Reportedly the mastermind behind the policy Bannon said that “if you look at these Cabinet nominees they were selected for a reason, and that is deconstruction.”

The DailyKos goes on to say:

“The crippling or wholesale elimination of Federal agencies that ensure we receive such things as clean air, clean water, fair labor laws, fair housing standards, anti-discrimination laws, financial protections, food and drug safety, national education standards the like, has been a goal of [the] far-right … for decades.Their rationale, propagated by corporate and industry funded think tanks … has always been that the existence of these … agencies represents a mortal threat.

The reality is that these extensions of the Executive Branch-the Department of Labor, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Education, for example-exist to serve the interests of all the American people, performing the painstaking and complex task of regulating the very things that make all Americans’ lives worth living.They perform this function because history has clearly shown that neither the Congress nor the states are remotely up to the task of doing it. They have neither the time, the expertise, the manpower, or the ability to handle such mammoth responsibilites in a country of 330 million people.”

Yes, the Federal Government is just looking out for you … that’s why they use these agencies to eliminate free market choices and detain people for non-violent offenses that don’t keep us safer from national threats or those among us who wish to do us harm. These agencies have horrible track records and where there are private options available are usually outshined. The TSA, for example, has a 90% failure rate in detecting and neutralizing terrorist threats while private security at airports have a 75% success rate. The FDA has a death rate in the 100,000’s annually. When an environmental disaster occurs, the EPA has been slow to respond and the Department of Education is only about indoctrination and fails to prepare students for the real world. If the Department of Labor had it’s way every occupation would be unionized and that would be the end of all American efficiency and innovation. I know DailyKos means this article as a scare tactic but its not working very well, the elimination of the public options and replacing them with private ones would make things better. If Trump does that, it will be one of the major boons from the administration, not a blackmark.

Bannon and Trump seem to have come from the same mindset, which only makes sense since they took similar paths. They are both corporatists to an extent, neither respects the Constitution and both are propagandists from the entertainment industry. Thing is, getting rid of Bannon doesn’t really matter, Trump is the president and even without his so-called “puppet master” advisor he will go down the same path. Bannon is to Trump, what Valerie Jarrett was to Barack Obama, or Karl Rove was to George W. Bush. If we are really lucky we end up with presidential advisors who are more than simply “yes-men” but most of them are, since that’s what the president is generally looking for. They want people with more knowledge and insights on the issues but still share their perspective. This is nothing new and doesn’t make Steve Bannon more or less of a threat than any of Trump’s other advisors.

R.C. SEELY is the founder of the americanuslibertae.com and the YouTube channel Americaus Libertae Television. He is also an author, the most recent VictimsofWhiteMale: HowVictimCultureVictimizesSociety.